Houses and ducks and tantrums, oh my!

We are officially homeowners! We closed on the house on the 29th and then B and I left for Maine with the family the next day. The big move will be on the 21st so the next two weeks will be a blur of packing and getting everything ready.

Mima, Papa, Keith, Shannon, Lauren, B and I stayed in one cabin in Maine and then our extended family stayed in another cabin up the lake a bit. It was great to see everyone; we hadn't seen some of our family in almost 10 years!

Brendan was super toddler on the five-hour car ride up but things took a turn for the worse pretty much as soon as we got there. I had a stage five clinger on my hands the entire nine days we were there. Would not go to anyone but me; had no interest in going in any of the boats; insisted on being pushed in the stroller or carried if we went for a walk or to the beach. To make things even more awesome, he developed a fever for two days and threw up all over himself and the pack n' play during one of his naps. Thankfully Mima stayed composed and led the cleaning crusade. Once his fever broke he was covered in a rash so it was pretty clear that he had roseola.

Now that we're home again he's back to his usual charming self. Tonight he insisted on sitting on the potty not once, but three times in a ten-minute span. He has yet to actually do anything other than sit on it. I bought it just after he turned two to see if he had any interest. We aren't going to actively start until he shows more readiness signs but it's fun to pretend for now. He has this bit of a quirky thing where he must be completely naked when he goes on the potty. I've tried in vain to convince him that he can keep his shirt on but it's clearly a pointless battle.

Anyway, once he gets on there he insists on some quality reading material. As it happens, we have a magazine rack next to the toilet so he'll ask for a "sassine" (magazine) after he hoists himself up on the potty. And wouldn't you know, the only magazines available for perusing happen to be Maxim. So here's my naked toddler sitting on the toilet looking at women in their lingerie, pointing out their belly buttons and various other body parts, asking where their clothes are. To which I answer, "hmmmm, I don't know." Brilliant! Methinks someday that answer won't be good enough. I'll let Daddy handle it when we get there.

Here are some pics of the house and our trip. Enjoy!

The house!


Living room


Dining room


Kitchen


Family room


Car ride up to Maine - YGG!


The beautiful view from the dock


The cabin


Colors! (Brendan's way of saying "coloring")


Aunt Lauren fixing puppy's broken arm


Peaceful moment with Mommy


"Unkew Keef" sizing up the canoe


Tantrum #274


A very brave duck


Mima and Papa


Tantrum #568


The very adorable Sam, Elena and Megan


The family (minus Kenny, Betsy and Paul)


Tantrum #942


A very serious game of roofball


A rare sighting of happy Brendan!



Brendan is 2 years, 1 month and 11 days old today!

Pictures

Brendan had a stomach bug for a few days and was a bit of a beast. Well, a major beast actually. These are pics of him in a more mellow mood.






Every morning I put my makeup on while I'm sitting on the couch. Every morning Sir parks himself on the couch next to me, grabs my makeup bag, dumps the contents on the couch, then helps himself.








The last time Kenny took Brendan to the barber he had a bit of a meltdown. Brendan did too. So this time I decided to take him to a kids' place and he did much better. They cut it very short and I had her put gel in and spike it for fun. We went to Target after and got a lot of double-takes. I didn't get any pics of the spikes though. :( Here are some pics of him with his big-boy haircut. Unfortunately he wasn't feeling too cooperative. He looks sooo much older!








Brendan is 19 months and 5 days old today!

18 Months

Sir is a growing machine! He had his 18-month appointment today where we found out that he grew 2.5" since his last appointment three months ago. He shot up from the 75th percentile to the 95th percentile!

This is kind of where I imagined he'd be all along, considering how tall Kenny and I are. He gained one pound, nothing crazy, but he's been fighting a stomach bug (which he graciously shared with Momby and Daddy - yes, he calls me Momby) so I'm sure that he's closer to a 1.5 to 2lb gain. Anyway, he's still in the 50th percentile for weight and above the 95th percentile for head circumference, which still makes me giggle.

He's been a lot more vocal and determined to express himself. Most of what he says still sounds like a whole lot of gibberish but we can make out some words here and there. Some of his favorites are:

Oh mo! (oh no)
Shyooz (shoes)
Uh oh!
Cookie (of course he knows this one!)
Mombydaddy (he has a habit of babbling and stringing these two words together)
Ee-i-ee-i-oooo (this is the only part of Old MacDonald he knows and he likes to interject it randomly during his rants)
Uppy (up)
Bush tee (brush teeth)
No (always with a head shake to emphasize the "no" part)
Te-you (two, after I say one)

And of course he knows a few of his favorite shows on Nick Jr.:
Wow wow wow wow Wubshe (Wow Wow Wubbzy)
Booz cooz (Blue's Clues)
Yoo (Yo Gabba Gabba)

His receptive language is really developing nicely too. He knows what it means when I ask him to bring me something, when I say it's time for a bath or bed, etc. It's amazing how quickly their language develops at this age. Every time I look at him I wonder where my baby went.


Brendan is 18 months, 2 weeks and 4 days old today!

Goodbye to babyhood, hello to toddlerhood (OMG)

Today Mommy is home with Brendan. He was up every 30 minutes hysterically crying so none of us got any sleep. Nanny Darlene and I took him to the pediatrician this morning and it turns out he's got yet another ear infection and she wants us to do nebulizer treatments with him again three times a day to clear up all the gunk in his chest. Poor little guy.

Brendan's birthday party was yesterday and even though he wasn't feeling his best, he had a great time. Unlike his mom and dad, Brendan seems to really enjoy being the center of attention. We had the party at the clubhouse where Nanny Darlene lives and had family and a few close friends join us. He wasn't terribly interested in eating his birthday cupcake (surprise, surprise) but he was immensely interested in touching the flames on the candles.

Brendan has been crawling around like crazy, pulling himself up on any and every piece of furniture in the house and cruising like a pro. He's getting braver and braver with the cruising so we're pretty sure he's going to be walking any minute now. His head must be made of lead because he hits it about ten thousand times a day but he's still managed to escape any sort of brain damage. The first three hundred times it happened my heart skipped a beat. But now we just say yay and clap. And don't you know, he face planted into the TV not ten minutes ago, sat up and started clapping for himself. Oh, and I taught him to do a high 5. :)

Tomorrow is the big day, when my little baby turns one year old. I can't even explain the sort of mixed emotions I have about this milestone. I had to stop singing happy birthday at his party because I was choking back tears. I'm about three thousand times more emotional since I had Brendan than I was before, and that's saying something because I've ALWAYS been super emotional. I have this incredible excitement at seeing all the new things Brendan is going to be doing and saying. But I'm going to be sad to say goodbye to "baby" Brendan. On the plus side, we're starting to wean him from formula so at least I can excited at saving a little but of money. (Although the amount of money we're going to spend on band-aids over the next few years probably negates that savings!)

Here are some pictures from his party:

B with Mommy and Daddy


B with Grandma and Nanny


B trying to touch the fire


B with his pretty cousins Emily & Julia



Brendan is one day away from being ONE YEAR OLD today!

Fun In the Sun

Last week was a week of many firsts for Brendan: First plane ride, first time meeting lots of family, first time at the beach and his first time in a pool.

We left on Saturday from the local airport. As we walked and walked and walked down the plane aisle to find our row, we finally got to the back and realized we were in the very last row. The one with no leg room and the seats that don't recline. We're tall people folks, 6'3" and 5'10" and we are holding a lengthy 10-month old on our laps for the next 2+ hours. We need some space!

Thankfully, the seat tray on my seat was stuck open and the angel of a steward told us he was going to find us better seats. And glory of all glories, he found us a lovely 3-seat row in the front with tons of leg room and an empty seat for Bootie's little hiney, in the event that he actually wanted to sit for a change. Our child did not sleep a wink. No, no. He wanted to be entertained the entire way. So Kenny and I took turns passing him back and forth like a hot potato for a few hours. As we landed, Sir decided it was an appropriate time for a Mr. Softee diaper, chocolate if you get my drift. It was smelly and thisclose to busting out of the back of his diaper. Daddy shamefully even went in for a picture of it. (Okay, Mommy held his waistband out so he could get a better shot. It had to be done.)







We made it to our destination in one piece and headed up to the condo. The one we stayed in was right on the ocean, with a great view from the balcony. Sunday everyone came over to hang out and get to know Brendan. Grandpa Billy, Grandma Sharon, Aunt Nicole, Uncle Keith, Aunt Shannon and Great Grandma Jackie were all there showering our little nugget with lots of attention. Which, being the little ham he is, he loved every second of.

Showing off one of his swim outfits


Chomping on his rake (hoe?)


Practicing standing with Grandpa


Talking to Great Grandma Jackie


Conked out after an exhausting day




Dancing


Closeup of the feet








A sneak peak of the days to come (more about that below)


Daddy could only stay until Tuesday so Grandpa Billy stayed with us during the week to help out. Brendan got a kick out of his Grandpa, especially whenever he spoke in his Donald Duck voice. He also tried to teach Brendan how to make funny sounds by popping his finger against the inside of his cheek. Brendan only got as far as sticking his finger in his mouth, but it was a solid attempt.

By the fourth day, Brendan woke up with a cold and a little fever. And for the next three days he was a bit of a beast. He would be perfectly content, then pitch a fit for no reason. My happy little boy became a cranky, relentlessly whiny little poop. And this was the baby that Grandpa was around for the better part of the week. If the wind changed or you looked at him the wrong way, watch out! Arched back, big gloppy tears, the whole nine yards. If it wasn't for the absolutely gorgeous weather I'm pretty sure I would have flung myself off the balcony mid-week.



A blurry shot of the pool, beach is to the left


View of the beach from the balcony


Sunset view from the balcony


Looking at the funny people in the mirror


Yet another swim outfit


Brendan has a brand new cousin, Micah, who Uncle Matthew brought us to meet during the week. He's an adorable little guy who looks just like his Daddy and gave lots of smiles.



Micah and his daddy Matthew





On Friday I had an appointment at a hair salon and enjoyed a solid two hours of heavenly peace and quiet while Aunt Nicole watched Brendan. She claims he was a perfect angel for him, which just figures. Apparently Mommy brings out the worst in you when you're sick, off schedule, in a strange place and overtired.

We hit the pool later that afternoon and Brendan enjoyed another swim. At first, he would cling on to me for dear life but as soon as he got used to it he'd kick and splash around like a pro. It probably just seemed like the biggest bathtub ever to him.





Hat hair


Warming up with Aunt Nicole


We all decided it should be Aunt Nicole's job to walk Brendan around since she's such a shrimp at just 5'4" (hehehe...)


The view from the back (baby got back...)


Aunt Nicole and I also decided to try a photo shoot on the beach. But Mr. Crankypants wasn't terribly into it. Who cries at the beach on a beautiful, sunny day?! This boggles my mind. How can any child of mine not LOVE the beach?







A closeup of a big. gloppy tear


And a random picture for fun. Giving new meaning to the word flexible...


On the last night I put Brendan to bed and had some fun girl time with Shannon and Nicole and a nice bottle of wine and tub of ice cream. Every girl's perfect night.

I dreaded the flight home all week since it would just be me to handle Mr. Fidgets but he gave me a great Mother's Day gift by behaving like a perfect little gentleman. He was awake for the first hour, then slept on me for an hour. I was stuck in a hideously uncomfortable position but frankly, I'd rather have achy joints for a week than deal with a cranky baby for an hour so I thought it was a fair trade. We were supposed to land a few minutes early but Mother Nature was PMS'ing and decided to make it really windy so we ended up having to circle around above the airport for 30 minutes until it calmed down enough to land safely.

It was really a cruel joke. I wanted nothing more than to be home and there was home, within view, but I couldn't get anywhere near it. We were sitting in the window seat next to an 8-year-old girl and her mother and the two of them were puking in their barf bags for the entire 30 minutes. So I was stuck in my suddenly claustrophobic seat getting whiffs of vomit panicking that Brendan was going to start getting pissy. In all seriousness, it was only a matter of time before the plane ran out of fuel and barf bags. We finally managed to land safely and spent the day at Nanny Darlene's house with Grandma Annie, Grandpa Charlie, Uncle Scott and Daddy.

It was a great trip and it was wonderful to see everyone and for Brendan to finally meet the rest of my side of the family. We are counting down the days until our next venture down there next year!


Brendan is 10 months, 1 week and 4 days old today!